Hard drive trouble...

Solnyshko · 7 Sep 2007 at 15:46

Just installed a 3rd SATA HDD (bought from the OCUK members market) and suddenly, after transferring many files to it - I can no longer see it :eek:

any help very much appreciated

Admiral Huddy · 7 Sep 2007 at 15:52

Is it coming up in the list of installed devices during POST?

Solnyshko · 7 Sep 2007 at 15:52

it was at first - now no more

ANDARIAL · 7 Sep 2007 at 16:05

recheck all cables?

Dob1eman · 7 Sep 2007 at 16:09

Did you change any settings in bios such has chaning from SATA, to IDE, etc this can sometimes mess with seeing the HDD in windows?

Solnyshko · 7 Sep 2007 at 16:20

Checked and rechecked al connections, didnt mess with the bios

Going to reboot now - I should mention that the drive 'vanished' after a write error when I was moving a large 51GB block over to the newly added drive. an explorer window popped up saying that a particular file had not been successfully transferred and had been lost. no biggie in itself but the rest of the drive was no longer listed in My Computer, rebooting also confirmed this when the drive failed to POST as a device along with my other two drives

ANDARIAL · 7 Sep 2007 at 16:26

does it show up in disk management?

Admiral Huddy · 7 Sep 2007 at 16:48

Are the other drives in RAID configuration?

I know that with my mobo, I still have to go into the RAID menu to set the drive to single array otherwise it wouldn't see the drive. Press F4 (or F5 - can' remember which) after the intial POST to enter the RAID menu.. You should be able to add it there as a single drive. That said, you have already seen it????

Solnyshko · 7 Sep 2007 at 16:54

replumbed some wiring - swapping SATA connectors on the mobo etc and it has mysteriously reappeared. Hardly inspires confidence as a robust storage arrangement - ho hum

on a side note can you recommend a painless way delete large file/folder structures securely? ie with a 3-pass physical scrub?

Solnyshko · 7 Sep 2007 at 16:55

Admiral Huddy said:
Are the other drives in RAID configuration?

I know that with my mobo, I still have to go into the RAID menu to set the drive to single array otherwise it wouldn't see the drive. Press F4 (or F5 - can' remember which) after the intial POST to enter the RAID menu.. You should be able to add it there as a single drive. That said, you have already seen it????

that had crossed my mind too, as my DFI mobo defaults to a RAID menu - long time since i checked it - perhaps this is creating inconsistencies?